Society

A Display of Public Ignorance About Depression

People are dumb; there’s nothing new about that. Public ignorance about depression in particular was on display recently in a news article I came across, and it annoyed me, so I thought I’d write about it. First, let’s start with some background. The news related to the findings of an article published last month in …

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Mental Health @ Home book review: Collective Illusions by Todd Rose

Book Review: Collective Illusions

Collective Illusions by Todd Rose explores the creation and maintenance of social lies that are fuelled by false assumptions, conformity, silence, and a lack of questioning. Drawing on social psychology and neuroscience, this book shows just how skewed these norms can be from the reality of what most people actually think. Collective illusions occur when …

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Exploring of the incel phenomenon: image of male and female genes and a psy symbol

Exploring the Psychology of the Incel Phenomenon

The incel (a portmanteau of “involuntary celibate”) phenomenon, at least in its present incarnation, has emerged in the last decade and a bit. It’s come into the public eye through acts of violence committed by the likes of Elliot Rodger (in 2014 in Isla Vista, California) and Alek Minassian (in 2018 in Toronto, Ontario). Misogyny, …

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What Is... Series (Insights into Psychology)

What Is… Cognitive Dissonance

In this series, I dig a little deeper into the meaning of psychology-related terms. This week’s term is cognitive dissonance. Cognitive dissonance occurs when we have two beliefs that conflict, or when our beliefs and actions don’t match, making us feel uncomfortable. The concept was originally described back in the 1950s by psychologist Leon Festinger. …

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